Kevin T. Johns interview with David Alan Binder

posted Apr 4, 2017, 4:25 PM by David Alan Binder

Kevin T. Johns interview with David
Alan Binder

This
is my first ever interview that was answered by sending me a YouTube video of
the author answering the questions verbally.Kevin T. Johns is a crack up and you get to see video and have the
experience I did.It is a very different
experience than my previous interviews.

Again,
to appreciate this answer you have to see the video! I guarantee you will laugh.

2.Where are
you currently living?

Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada

3.What is the
most important thing that you have learned in your writing experience, so far?

Perseverence,
Stick with it. Keep going. So many authors get hung up on book number
one and well like what’s book number one, come on guys, you want to build a
career, you don’t want to have just one book and so sticking with it, getting
that one book done and then moving on is so key.

4.What would
you say is your most interesting writing, publishing, editing or illustrating
quirk?

Violence,
probably violence, all my books are filled with blood and guts. They are ostensibly YA books and about teenagers
and yet they all feature massive gore so it actually disqualifies them as being
actual YA books. So, basically I write
thriller gore books that have teenagers in them. That is probably my most interesting quirk.

5.Tell us your
insights on self-publish or use a publisher?

If
you want to self-publish it basically means you are going into business as an
entrepreneur. Being an author is one
career, being an entrepreneur is a whole other career; in both of those careers
is extremely complicated and extremely difficult and challenging, so if you are
choosing to self-publish. I think that
some people think that self-publishing is the easier route if all you care
about is getting the book into the world.
If you care about getting the book into the world, and finding readers
and making your money back and building a career

Even if an
author’s total focus is Kindle e-books they still like the print books. Something you can hold and put on a bookshelf. There is nothing like that.

7.Do you have
any secret tips for writers on getting a book published?

Pushing
past perfectionism is the most important thing.
So many authors, especially first time authors get so hung up on wanting
their book to be, they want the first book to be Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows. You know they want their first
book out of the gate to be the biggest, greatest thing ever. It is not going to happen it is not
reality. You know becoming a massive author
and writing these masterpieces takes time and so if you want to get a book
published. It is about being willing to
say this is the best I can do right now with the resources and skill set and
knowledge I have available to me and then putting it out there and being
willing to ship. Saying, yeah, maybe
it’s not perfect, maybe it’s not the greatest thing in the world but that
doesn’t mean that it does not have value that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t
deserve to be out there in the world. That
is my biggest tip on publishing. Get
over yourself, get over your perfectionism, get out there, and make something
happen.

8.How did you
or would you suggest acquire an agent?
Any tips for new writers on getting one?

For
most things that I am not the expert in, I go to the experts and I get that
knowledge. You probably can’t see but
next to me is a bookshelf and every single book next to me is about writing and
publishing and writing stuff. Let me
see, there you go [holding up book] Guide to Query Letters. There is another one here, called how to get
an agent or something [he finds it and holds up] How to Get a Literary
Agent. Long story short if you want to
get an agent go read some books on the process and study up on it. Do the things required of you, do the hard
work, and make it happen. None of the
stuff in life is easy and no one is going to hand you all the answers. If you could find all the answers to life in
a blog post then, hey, more power to you.
Most people actually have to read books to get the information they
need. So, go buy a couple of books on
how to get an agent and do the stuff the books suggest.

9.Do you have any suggestions or helps for new writers (please
be specific and informational as possible)?

In addition
to being an author, I am also a writing coach.
So I have a job where every single day I do is work with writers to help
them succeed, primarily new writers. I
have a million suggestions for new writers but I would say the most important
one is creating a regular writing habit, creating a schedule where you use
something that I call, non-negotiable writing time. That means just scheduling time into your day
where you are writing and not doing anything else and not leaving your writing
until everything else is done or the world is perfect. My number one tip is make a writing schedule
and stick to it.

10.What was one of the most surprising things you learned with your
creative process with your books, editing, publishing or illustrating?

No one
really cares; we get so wrapped up in ourselves. Oh my god what are people going to say, is my
book good enough or are people going to make fun of me or mock my book or
whatever. I mean we get so hung up on
ourselves and what people are going to think of our books, but the reality of
it is no one cares. Three hundred
thousand books or 30,000 books or something are published every single year,
yours is just going to be one of them.
So many writers are going to be concerned if people are going to, not
like their book when the real problem is no one is going to care. That’s the biggest challenge is getting
people to care, if you have haters, if you have people ripping on your book
then good on you because that means you’ve made a big enough impact that people
actually care enough to hate on you.

11.How many books have you written?

Six
books under my own name and one more about to come out and four others under
other people’s names as a ghostwriter so eleven total.

12.Do you have any tricks or tips to help others become a
better writer (please be as specific and information as you possibly can)?

The
biggest thing is understanding that writing is a craft. It is not some magical thing where god
reaches down and blesses you with the magic of the muse and suddenly you are
the greatest writer ever. Writing a book
is very much like learning build a brick wall, you need to do an
apprenticeship. You need to do the hard
work of learning your craft that is how you even get better at it. You are not going to get better at it by
sitting around waiting for the perfect idea or the perfect moment where
everything is going to be great. The
muse is going to inspire you, I mean, you need to approach it like a craft and
learn and read. There is a reason I have
25 books next to me right now on writing.
It is so I can get better at writing that is my number one tip there.

13.Do you have any suggestions for providing twists in a good
story?

Twists are dependent on not being a pantser a lot of the
time. There are people who think they
can just make up a story as you go along and some people can but a lot of the
time, if you want to have good twists that pay off well you need to plan ahead
of time. You need to do the story
planning long before you start drafting so that you know how to set up those
twists and have good payoffs. Something
I will say though is I like to end chapters with something I call the thrust
and twist; (I don’t remember who called it that) but it is the idea is that you
want to end chapter by stabbing the reader in the gut. (As if stabbing them in the gut is not
enough); then you want to twist give it a little twist. So, the thrust and twist gives the story some
kind of momentum. You never want to give
the reader an excuse to stop reading and the end of a chapter is a really good
excuse to stop reading. If you stick
those thrusts and twists at the end of every chapter; that can be a
cliffhanger, it can be a surprising revelation that is the stuff that keeps
people turning pages and keeps them reading your book at the end of the chapter
and wanting them to continue on to the next chapter.

14.What makes your or any book stand out from the crowd?

I
think that as readers we can all kind of sense authenticity versus commercial
gambits. There is the idea that I am
going to write as to market or I’m going to try to write something that
everybody loves. Screw that, the books
that I love aren’t the books that you love; we all love our own thing and the
writers that wrote those books stay true to their visions. They stay true to their authentic voice and
what they have to say about then world so what stands out about my books is
that I don’t compromise I don’t care if you like my book or not. I wrote this book for a certain audience and
I would love, for you to be part of that audience but that audience is largely
dependent on the experiences you’ve been through in your life. I grew up in a small town as a punk rock kid;
getting beat up by hicks and jocks and these guys who picked on me. If you grew up super wealthy in a massive
metropolitan city, you might not be able to relate to anything I write about in
my books and that is okay. However, my
books aren’t for you, my books are for the people who are like the punk rock
kid in a small town who’s going through the same crap I went through. That’s whom my books are for. That’s what makes any book that stand out;
just not compromising for commercial interests.
Just being authentic and true, knowing who your book is for and them
writing the book for that person and staying true to that vision.

15.What are some ways in which you promote your work?

Answering
interviews, interviews are always a great way to promote your work. The best thing you can do to promote a book
is to give it away to people and ask them to read it and write reviews because
nobody wants some indie author shoving a book down their throat like this crap
on Twitter, like buy my book. There are
so many books; there are Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald books that I
still haven’t read so why would I go read your indie romance when those are out
there. You have to come up with
something better than just read my book on some Facebook ad or something. The best thing you can do to market your book
is to get it into the hands of the people who it is meant for and then ask them
to write reviews and tell their friends about it. Don’t be afraid to give away your work
because reality is (giving away your work sucks) but did you do this to make a
million dollars or did you do this to connect with people and get your message
out there to the world. That is the main
way I’d promote my work and that is finding readers who are in my target
audience, offer them my book for free and get them to write a review; that is a
pretty good way to promote your book.

16. What is the one thing
you would do differently now (concerning writing or editing or publishing or
illustrating) and why?

With
my first couple of books I worked with an editor and a designer named Forrest
Adam Sumner, he was such an incredible creative partner, he was just the first
editor, and designer I worked with. I
don’t think I understood how lucky I was to have him. He was charging ridiculously low fees for
absolutely extraordinary work.
Ultimately (we did not have a falling out) but something happened in his
life and he went off and disappeared and we stopped working together. If I could look back on my publishing career
the one thing I so regret not having him.
He made my work so much better, he brought the quality of everything
just that much, one more level higher.
We connected right off the bat.
He was just that brilliant, creative partner that you want and since he
was the first editor I worked with, I did not realize how lucky I was. If I could do anything differently, I would
go back in time and pay him more money to show him how much I appreciate what
he brought to the project. He really
went above and beyond. That is a rare
and special thing.

17.What saying or mantra do you live by?

I
love the Ernest Hemming way quote, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no
one ever becomes a master.” That is
important to keep in mind. Everyone
thinks of Hemmingway as being a master of the craft and yet here he is saying
he’s but an apprentice and that he is always learning. That we are all always learning, I think that
is so useful in so many ways. I think we
always want to be improving; we always want to be learning as writers. We also want to remember we are never
masters, we can always do better and that’s okay. We don’t have to beat ourselves up for not
being geniuses. If Hemmingway says he
was an apprentice then it is perfectly okay for you and me and whoever is out
there, trying to write their novel to be apprentices as well.

18.Anything else you would like to say?

I’ll say that I am a writing coach
if you are looking for some support, some advice, and some accountability to
help you though the novel writing process then pop by my website [he laughs and
says can you guys here my kids? I have
three daughters and they are upstairs going crazy] anyway, that is what I will
leave you with. If you are a writing
watching [or reading] this and struggling with your writing or if you are
looking for support or looking for advice or you just want a partner to help
you through this crazy process that is writing a book I am a writing coach and
you can visit [my website]. There is
information there about my coaching program or you can just send me an email at
kevin@kevintjohns.com This writing thing is my life and my passion
so I care about it and it is what I do every day. If you want someone to connect with, if you
are feeling alone or depressed or if you are struggling. If you have a story within you and you just
don’t know how to get it out or you don’t believe you can do it. I believe in you I know that you can do
it. If a moron like me can do it, you
can do it too. So, hit me up and I’d
love to hear from you or check out my novels; I’ve got two Young Adult novels
called The Page Turners and The Page Turners, Economy of Fear. I have a thriller called, M School which I
think is pretty great. It came out last
year and I’d love for you to check it out.

Thanks so much for watching [or
reading]. I hope you enjoyed it, and I’d
love to hear from you.